Slub?

Scrim?

Bearding?

Are we still even talking about quilting???

As we know quilting has plenty of weird terminology! So lets dive into some today.

We are gonna be talking about Batting and all its wild and wonderful sides….

What is Batting really?

Batting is also known as wadding, say that with a brittish accent and you get the gist. Batting is the middle layer of your quilt that provides the bloody warmth and weight of your quilt.

I haven’t counted but there is probably over 100 different types of batting… from cotton to bamboo, wool to silk, polyester to thermal protection. A million fibers & blends of fibers for the choosing and they all have their pluses and minuses. I’m not going into what is best for what, that is a whole post in itself, but rather what it actually is made of and how it behaves.

You can buy batting with Scrim or without…. what is Scrim you say? and how do I know if I need it?

Scrim is a light layer of woven fibers that adds stability to the batting while you are trying to quilt it. General batting is needle punched, but when needle punched with scrim you have more stability. You can also buy bonded batting that uses a thin layer of resin to bond fibers together.

Get ready here comes the slubs and beards…

Did you say slug? Nope. Slub.

The definition of q slub is a thick or uneven place in yarn or thread. You can also have slub in fabric and batting. Sometimes we like it for its cool, rough texture… sometimes we don’t! Like in lumpy batting. So you will hear the word slub or low-slub get thrown around sometimes. P.S. Slugs are so gross!

Bearding

Beards in life… I like, in quilting… not so great.

Bearding is when some of the slubs migrate through your fabric and your beautiful quilt starts to grow a little beard. Usually migrating through your needle holes or seams. I think it is super noticeable on a darker quilt. So use black batting if you can. Mostly bearding happens on the back of the quilt. That is if you layered the batting right side up!

Did you know that batting has a right and wrong side???

Yup, sure does. Crazy huh? Needle punched batting will have a side that has small pin holes or dimples, this is the right side. The fluffier more “dirty” side has slubs (yeah, that’s right, you know what a slub is!) and is the wrong side of the batting. You want your needle to be piercing the batting in the same direction that the needle punching made the batting. You can also use a needle to test this theory out yourself and find the right side.

To help prevent bearding you can make sure you are using the most appropriate batting and needle. Polyester and wool have significant bearding. Using a bonded batting or batting with scrim helps hold fibers together so they don’t wander. Also, the smallest, thinnest, and sharpest needle possible makes less of a hole for the fibers to try to escape.

So do you feel super educated on batting right now? I do.

Leave me a comment below if you learned something new about batting in this post!

Keep it Sassy♥

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